Freelance

Editing

I’ve been editing in professional and non-professional settings for almost a decade and I’m always seeking new editing clients. I edit everything from memoirs, essays, dissertations to novels, short stories, and poetry.

I work quickly and have a turn around of one to two weeks for novels, and 24 hours for short stories.

Pay Rates

$2/page (double spaced): line-by-line editing along with a deep look at characterisation and narrative.

$5/poem

Philosophy

I find it useful to think of a book as a body. The narrative structure is the skeleton, the characters are the organs, and the sentences are the skin. While the skeleton and organs are the most important part, the skin is what can turn a very good book into a great one. On the other hand, if you have great skin but a broken skeleton, you don’t have much of anything.

Process

I love editing. I really do. I honestly never would have guessed this about myself, but I take a great deal of joy from helping someone improve their writing. I am also very critical, and I tend to point out the bad far more than I point out the good. It’s not meant as a slight against you, but the places that need improvements and so on are the ones I think are most important for me to catch as an editor. In addition, I see being an editor as your partner, but one who does not have final say. If we go forward, I’m with you as long as you need me, in terms of discussion and advice. If you do a rewrite and want another full edit, then we’d need to discuss money again, but, other than that, I’m here. But one of the things about this partnership is that it ultimately comes down to your choices. When I go through the edit, there will be a lot of comments and mark ups, and many of them will be quite nitpicky, in a sense. But because this is your book, you have the final say on everything. There’s no need to take any of my edits or suggestions if you disagree with them. And my edits are very open to discussion. If I make an edit that you disagree with, feel free to let me know. We can discuss it and come to a better understanding and think of new strategies to improve specific aspects of the writing. Ultimately, this is your book, and I’m just here to help you make it better. That even extends to sentence edits. For me, editing isn’t about enforcing a style on writers, but taking their personal style and making it better.

Ghostwriting

I’ve done a great deal of ghostwriting and I’m always looking for new work. I have experience writing screenplays, memoirs, non-fiction, and fiction.